Dear Friends of the Unreal —

As NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty warns in his book, week #2 is tough. For those of us who have trouble with plot, week #2 feels plodding, and uncomfortable, and at this point just a tad strange.

This morning I found myself haunted by books I’ve loved and characters I admire. By stories I wish I’d told myself, and by ideas I had in rough drafts of other stories but that I’ve had to abandon.  The return of the repressed — so touted by Sigmund Freud — seemed to be occurring.

What to do?

Allow it.  See where it goes.

I figured that in this morass of zombies something alive must lurk.  And just as I decided this, a dead writer appeared on the doorstep of the project.

I’ve let him in, hoping — to paraphrase  the Swedish horror movie — that he’s the right one.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Then uncross them, and continue writing.